Devil's consultancy 25

“Make a note.” Batman said shortly after they launched. “Current response times for the planetary shield generator are insufficient. We did not account for camouflage, and it’s likely that there exists technology to elude our scanners in other ways.” Currently, the theoretical response time was twenty minutes, but in practice the drills rarely concluded in less than thirty. Unfortunately, they couldn’t just keep it up at all times, it interfered with current infrastructure in a way that wasn’t compensated for yet. It wouldn’t be able to be constantly powered on for a few more years, and probably longer given that the political will for the adjustments just wasn’t there. 

Hm. Maybe this incident will change that, even if it would be vastly preferable that it not be damaging enough to do that. Rhine reached into their left wing, pulled out their smartphone from the dark portal, and made the note. ‘The shield cannot be erected fast, we must improve our defenses past.’ They then hit the button that attempted to decrypt their rhyme, but it failed. Okay, it was a bit of a stinker… They put the phone away. They’ll remember what it meant. 

Still, while the scanners couldn’t discern whatever redirected that meteor, they did have a heading… unless it decided to redirect again. It was headed straight for Metropolis, of course. Right when Clark decided to go gallivanting to another universe, too. He should have at least left Kara behind to watch the planet while he was gone… 

Nevertheless, while Captain Atom was displeased to know that enough of the Justice League was indisposed that he had to be called in despite being on personal business, he was a military man and thus understood that suspicious meteors hitting an American city was definitely important enough to interrupt literally anything else he was doing. In that respect, the fact that it hit America was quite fortunate, because unlike most of the Jusitce League, Captain Atom was absolutely an American patriot and might have blown off Batman’s call if it was hitting, say, Russia. 

“Hey, I found something weird.” Gear, who was running the Watchtower console (as he usually was; the years spent fighting side-by-side with Static had soured him to front-line duty when he can avoid it), said after he connected to the Batplane. “This meteorite? I ran a backtrace on it, and… It came from Earth.”

“Explain.” Batman commanded. 

“Okay, so, our scanners aren’t exactly top of the line, on a galactic scale.” Gear began, “They can and do track large objects that can potentially hit Earth or Mars, but mostly they try to spot ship emissions. This one was labeled by the system as being of interest about two years ago, when it got slingshot by Jupiter into a close enough course with Earth for the system to need to run odds. It then calculated, and confirmed that chances of it hitting Earth were basically zero, so it just logged it and kept track in case that changed. As you know, it did.”

“Get to the point, we’re almost at Metropolis.” Batman ordered. 

“Right. Sorry sir.” Gear said, mildly afraid of Batman.  “Anyway, instead of sitting on my thumbs up here, I thought I might be able to get a heading on where this thing came from, so I had it extrapolate where it came from, maybe I could get a star system, ask GL if his Ring could I.D. it afterwards.”

“It can turn, though.” Robin said, “Wouldn’t that mean we can’t trust it?”

“Maybe.” Gear acknowledged, “But we have more computing power than the rest of the planet put together anyway,” No longer true, not after the latest generation of supercomputing clusters, using the same tech base the Watchtower’s systems use, came online. “-so I figured it couldn’t hurt to check.” A reasonable measure, though. “But when it ran the calculation, it produced a mathematically perfect trajectory. Margin of error is big enough that I can only say that it launched from somewhere in the eastern half of America or Canada, but on an astronomical scale that’s a pinhead target. It was launched towards the sun five years ago, slung around past Jupiter, then slung back towards Earth. The trajectory change was caused by a single-use Orion pulse.” That would be… after the Justice League was formed, then. Long enough that while a tight timetable, it’s quite possible whatever project this was started after the Almeran invasion. 

Robin made a face. “...Isn’t that just a nuke?”

“Yes.” Gear replied. 

“So this thing’s going to be radioactive?” Static asked, having apparently been patched into the call at some point. 

“Captain Atom can handle cleanup.” Batman pointed out, “Brief him.” In a way, it was fortunate that he got called in already; Atom would have been much more cross if he was called purely to clean up some radiation. 

“Aye aye, sir.” Gear said before leaving the call.

“So, keep my distance from the rock?” Static continued, still understandably concerned. 

“Couldn’t hurt.” Robin replied. 

“Report to the Watchtower for debriefing.” Batman commanded.

Robin quickly cut in: “After this guy’s dealt with, of course.”

“In the heights of space, our medicae is fast paced.” Rhine offered. 

Batman handed Robin a pill. “This will reduce any incidental damage from radiation.” He murmured, before popping another pill himself. They had long discovered that Rhine’s metallic skin and lack of most organs made them highly resistant to radiation damage, although the exact limits were untested. 

Robin glanced to the co-pilot chair, where he usually stashed his snacks, but Rhine took out a juice box (apple this time, easily spared), telekinetically put the straw in, and handed it over. “Thanks.” Robin said softly before popping the pill and taking a deep drink. He then held it out, offering the rest to Batman. Without a word, it was accepted and Batman finished off the box. Rhine held out a bottle of water to him, but Batman waved it off. It was good to hydrate before a fight, and a little extra blood sugar wouldn’t go amiss. 

The meteor landed, but Static had already evacuated the projected area, so while an intersection got completely destroyed, and the surrounding buildings damaged, no one got hurt. 

“This is your stop!” Robin announced, turning the plane into a wide turn to circle the impact zone. 

Rhine grabbed Batman and phased out of the Batplane. “As I fly forth on a wing, we’ll need speed to take a swing!” Rhine incanted, surrounding both of them with magical energy and accelerating towards the site. 

Once they arrived, the meteor had already disgorged the alien entity within. Exactly how alien it was is… questionable. It had gray skin and numerous bone growths, but it hewed to an otherwise human body plan, unless you counted his sheer size as another abnormality. His build kind of reminded Rhine of Bane when he’s on Venom, or Solomon Grundy perhaps. Larger and bulkier than could be considered normal, but still within theoretical possibility for humanity… in this world at least. Interestingly, he had a shock of white hair on the back of his head, exactly as one would expect from a balding man who hasn’t had a haircut in over a year. Furthermore, he was dressed in green shorts and boots that would have fit right in in any professional wrestling stable. For someone who thought this was an alien, these small oddities were easily dismissable, at least to those who’ve seen kryptonians and almerans. But with the knowledge that this was probably a false flag of some kind… telling. 

Static had already engaged the entity in combat, and was performing pretty much as one expected: poorly. It shrugged off Static’s direct electrical attacks, which wasn’t that surprising; while Static could modulate his electrical attacks within a large range of voltage, amperage, and wattage, his default output was tuned to ‘taser’. Static escalated to taking all of the already-destroyed vehicles and infrastructure and piling on the metal to restrain the entity, but once more his strength was too great, and he tore himself out of the pile. 

Batman took a moment to observe, strategizing his approach. “Captain Atom, ETA?” He said, the tech in his cowl automatically connected him to the man in question.

Rhine was observing from inside Batman’s cloak, ready to play defense, so they heard his reply. “Right the hell now.” Captain Atom said, and a massive particle beam shot down from the sky and enveloped the alien entity. Instead of getting seriously damaged by the admirably high-powered attack, the entity leapt through the stream of high energy particles and forced Captain Atom to disengage to maintain his distance. The good captain was pretty durable and strong by the standards of an ordinary human, but against something that could tear tanks apart with their bare hands? He was outclassed. 

“You cannot possibly think that getting close you wouldn’t sink?” Rhine whispered to Batman. 

“I’m thinking.” Batman said instead, distinctly not ruling out getting into melee with this monster. “I’m going to need the experimental suit.” He concluded, before sending a message electronically to the deployment system. Oh no…

“Stellar Knight Armor incoming, ETA 4 minutes.” Alfred’s voice came in, “Mr. Fox heavily advises against this course of action, sir. It’s untested.” Of course it’s untested! It isn’t even finished! They’ve only barely adjusted the tech across the species barrier! The only reason it even looks okay is because they recycled the old power armor design! 

“Without Superman, it’s our best chance against this.” Batman said, “Captain Atom and Static can’t muster the power needed.”

It was true, Captain Atom and Static both took turns provoking the entity from the air, launching increasingly large outputs of energy, which was promptly shrugged off and even more damage to the area was caused. At least they were doing a good job containing the battle to an already evacuated sixteen blocks… A few other Justice League members had shown up via the Zeta Tube, but no heavy hitters; they were mostly just evacuating a wider area. 

There were, however, a few brave souls who engaged the alien entity directly. Shining Knight, one of the ones who didn’t have any actual magic of his own and instead used some old, incredibly powerful artifacts to fight. Elongated Man, a durable man whose body was like rubber, joined him. Between the two, Shining Knight managed to score a few hits with his magic sword, which caused some bleeding, but all it really did was prove that the alien entity had a level of regeneration to go with everything else, as it clotted quite quickly and they closed enough to not tear when he moved. Curses. 

Batman could not conceal his battle lust, holding himself back from joining the battle with great difficulty. “Do not engage, you’re lost in rage.” Rhine warned him. 

“I will wait for the armor.” Batman assured them. “You don’t have to fight,” he added, “-leave it to me.”

Rhine hummed. “Depends on him, he’s still full of vim.” The alien entity laughed as he clapped, a move that Superman occasionally pulled off, shattering the glass on the side of a building. What was his goal? “Perhaps it’s time for diplomacy with rhyme.” Rhine said, before taking flight. 

“Rhine!” Batman barked, “He’s not acting in self defense!”

“You’ve won quite handily, also quite rapidly.” Rhine commented, landing on a crooked but still technically standing light pole. 

“You’re one of the defenders of this planet?” The entity asked dismissively. 

“Defender’s not right, just curious of your might.” Rhine said disarmingly, waving their arms nonviolently. “Wondering of your motives, that destroyed all these automotives.”

“What do I want?” The entity asked for clarification. 

“Also your name, if it’s all the same.” Rhine added. 

“Call me Doomsday.” The pretentious prick said, clearly having invented it on the spot, “I want the same things you do, I imagine.” Rhine sincerely doubted that Doomsday wanted to play video games with affectionate toy golems, which is what they would have had planned if Alfred didn’t put piano practice in this time slot instead. “Power. Control. But first, I had to see the best this planet had to offer.” He sneered. “I am not impressed.”

His voice was smooth, his use of English immaculate. Unlike when most alien species spoke, his mouth synchronized precisely with his words; he was not using a translator. “I must admit the same, your linguistics betray your claim.” All the little things just lined up to confirm Gear’s data points of this being a false flag attack. 

Doomsday was perturbed by Rhine’s words, but the conversation was interrupted by him getting sucker-punched by… Superman? 

It was absolutely not Superman, though. Maybe this was that Bizarro fellow they’ve heard about? He was reportedly dead, but Clark never bothered making a proper report. 

Then again, reportedly Bizarro was erratic and mutated, and this one, despite the monochromatic fashion sense, looked like Superman. Just… wearing different clothes. Still, he needed scolding. “We were engaging in dialogue!” Rhine shouted at the top of their lungs. “Don’t just jump on him like a dog!”

Still, several of the missing Justice League members also showed up… all of them wearing different clothes. Many of them, in Rhine’s opinion, looked better than the old suits, but if these alternate dimension counterparts thought they could fool people who knew the missing members personally without even trying, they had another thing coming. Doomsday seemed to be stronger than not-Superman by a notable margin, so they were unable to secure a quick victory. 

Wait… If the alternate justice league is here… “Those who try to invade our mind, the flames of hell will not be kind!” Rhine shouted, infusing the spell thickly with vengeful intent. 

Behind them, not-J’onn screamed in agony and terror as he burst into flames. Good. The real one knows how much they hate telepathy and would only ever connect to their mind to communicate. Connecting with their mind without a word was damning enough for this; Batman has his contingencies, Rhine has their own. 

“What the hell are you doing?” Shouted a furious not-Hawkgirl. Her Nth metal mace flew through the space that Rhine’s head used to occupy, an out of character escalation for someone who drilled so often with the Justice League; she should have gone for a wing, or center mass. 

“Punishing the liar, he’s earned his hellfire.” Rhine spat as they flapped their wings, launching dozens of independent mage blade projectiles. Not-Hawkgirl disengaged to avoid and deflect them, a wise decision: they weren’t playing around like Bruce would prefer. 

It did, however, distract her from Batman landing his own sucker punch, a much more in-character action coming from him. “What?!” Not-Hawkgirl, who Rhine decided was now called Albatross, shouted in surprise. “How did you… No…” 

Interestingly, Albatross seemed to realize the implications of Batman’s new power armor: The Stellar Knight Armor was essentially repurposed and upscaled Thanagarian power armor, the kind they used in their interception fighters, created from the materials of multiple such suits. In Nth metal alone, it outweighed Hawkgirl’s usual armament by an order of magnitude. Albatross seemed to have doubled her own supply in comparison to Hawkgirl, so it wasn’t quite as extreme of a difference, but when talking about Nth metal equipment, the quantities of literally everything else was a rounding error. 

“So they haven’t invaded your Earth yet.” Batman commented idly, jumping to what might be an accurate conclusion, “What did you do to the Justice League? Why?” He growled, the energy fields indicative of Nth metal weapons crackling around his armor’s fists. They were much larger than they would be if they were real gloves; instead Bruce’s hands were in the extended forearm section and the mechanical hands imitated the motions of his biological ones. 

Green energy shot down towards both of them, but Rhine withdrew a can of yellow spray paint from their pocket dimension and dissolved the energy before it could bind them, while Bruce overpowered it with his Nth metal power fists, shattering the construct. “The Imposters are plain, not pretending the same.” Rhine commented as they started condensing magic into a salvo of artillery spells. As expected, not-Green Lantern, who will now be known as Spotlight, retreated up into the sky to reassess after his initial attack was repulsed. Albatross joined him, and they conferred with each other. “You think you know what’s in store? I invoke the power of the king of war!” The artillery spells shot out into the sky around them, forcing Spotlight to form a green barrier as they detonated. 

A familiar ankh erupted around them, binding Rhine tightly both physically and magically. “Finally, a chance to banish you, demon.” Dr. Fate said, somehow managing to convey his glee without changing his normal deep, dramatic tone one iota. 

Hm, this one wasn’t in a different outfit… wait, those words… damn. “These others, they’ve shifted particles, but you? You’re the genuine article.” Rhine spat. Not an imposter, merely a traitor. 

Unfortunately, Doomsday was apparently dealt with, as Superman had returned and had damaged the Stellar Knight Armor enough that its slipshod construction and experimental systems locked up and the still-suited Batman inside was torn out, put in similar magical bindings as Rhine. 

Dr. Fate opened a portal, with only a glance towards the incoming news helicopter. His words weren’t for Rhine, but for Batman. He said firmly, but quietly: “You’ll thank us one day.” Before shoving both of them through. 

-----------------------

As expected, there was another Dr. Fate on the other side of the portal, with a silver helmet, so the spellbindings were re-applied, the ankh swapped out for a manji. “Demons are liars and shapechangers.” Not-Dr. Fate, who Tanya decided to call Dr. Nazi, even if the manji he used was the wrong orientation to be a swastika, warned. “Be wary of their trickery.”

Another Batman, with an odd variation of his suit, more gray and silver rather than black, hummed. “Nothing we haven’t handled before.” He said coldly. “Put them in the cells.”

This facility, which from the looks of the ceiling appeared to be the Batcave, was substantially more elaborate in its construction than the one in their dimension. Bruce always seemed to prioritize so many things over building up the Batcave further, only doing so when he had some other immediate objective to accomplish, or occasionally when Gotham was exceptionally quiet. Something like this would take… a lot of quiet nights. 

The cells were fairly high-sec, the captured members of the Justice League… except for Shayera, for some reason, and Kent Nelson, for obvious reasons, all strapped to X-shaped struts with complicated and durable shackles encompassing all four limbs up to the joint, an additional shackle on the waist, and some contacts for biomonitors. Naturally, a few included some additional measures, like the red sun generator in Clark’s. 

Dr. Nazi secured Batman in an empty cell, but sent put Rhine into a small circular cage. “This will keep you into your true form, demon.” He spat, “Don’t think about trying to escape, either. This cage could hold Trigon himself if need be.”

The moment the cage closed, its enchantments engaged, and Rhine found themselves forcibly turned back into her child form. “Isn’t Trigon the size of a skyscraper?” Tanya asked, having heard of the Archdemon before. “This thing’s the size of your average dog kennel.” It was taller, mind you, but the total area was pretty comparable. Fortunately, at her size she didn’t need to constantly bend over or anything, just remain seated. It was not quite as fortunate that she was dressed properly instead of comfortably, wearing a flowery headband, one of her frillier dresses, a pearl necklace, and dress shoes, suitable for piano practice. 

“Fate.” The not-Batman, who Tanya still hadn’t thought of a good nickname for, growled as he stalked towards Dr. Nazi. “I thought you said this would stop her from transforming.”

“I do not know how it was subverted.” Dr. Nazi admits. “I can think of several possible explanations, but the cage’s anti-magic properties would block my magical scans.”

“This is my true form, Nelson.” Tanya deadpanned. “The traitor wearing your face doesn’t know a thing about me that didn’t come from his empty head.”

Not-Batman probably seemed calm and collected to most people, but Tanya’s known Bruce for long enough that she could pick out when he was thinking hard due to being put in a difficult position. So she threw more gas on the fire. “While we’re on the subject of inhumane prison conditions,” Tanya began, gesturing around her. “I didn’t see any evidence of a catheter or anything, how long do you plan on keeping them chained up like that? Some of us have medical needs, you know.” She’s about three days away from her next puberty blocker; it shouldn’t be that hard to get, but it’s not exactly something that you can just pick up at the pharmacy. 

“Until we can prepare more specific accommodations.” Not-Batman said, his tone evasive, the inherent dishonesty of a politician flavoring his words, softening them, putting a veil over her. Bruce would never take that tone with her, like she was some irrelevant civilian or lowborn grunt to be given the mushroom treatment… He was now X-man. It wasn’t really deserved, but she’s feeling petty. “Fate, could you bind her to an oath?”

Dr. Nazi hummed. “I couldn’t say. Is she too human to be bound by her words so simply? Is she too strong to submit to a geas?” Tanya actually knew what he was talking about: binding a magical being to an agreement was easy; binding a human to an agreement was hard, but most humans were weak so it didn’t make much difference for most people. Magically powerful humans like Constantine, on the other hand, can basically give demons with soul contracts the finger and dare them to take their rightful property by force. Tanya fell more towards the magical being end of that; while she didn’t automatically bind herself to her word, she couldn’t get away with faking agreement to a magically binding contract like Constantine can. 

“I can bind myself to an agreement.” Tanya offered instead, “I could promise to only use magic with permission from one of you, for example.” While she could do that, she was loathe to: these were already enemies who utilized deceptive ambushes, so she felt absolutely no qualms about turning that around on them. 

“Except we’d have to let you use magic to do it.” X-man pointed out. 

“Not necessarily.” Tanya said, “I know how this kind of cage works, I’ve set them up back at our own cave.” She looked at the bars. “Well, mine are less ‘rot and die, you subhuman’ than this, and I couldn’t get Nelson to help make them like you did, but the magical principle is the same.” 

“Fate, what is she talking about.” X-man asked. 

“First, stop calling me by that wretch’s name, demon.” Dr. Nazi said insistently. “Unlike my counterpart, I shed that shell for a much more capable mortal.” He did look a bit more muscular, now that she looked him over… 

“Fate.” X-man deadpanned. 

“Second,” Dr. Nazi continued, “She’s referring to the configuration of the barriers. Instead of shutting down her ability to use magic entirely, we isolate her from being able to affect anything outside. It would allow her to sustain herself with magic without needing to leave, as well as perform personal magic like swearing oaths.”

“The suppression effect weakens the cage’s ability to affect more powerful entities, but as you’ve got a Lord of Order powering it, he still outmuscles me magically enough that shutting me out form magic entirely still works.” Tanya paused from her academic lecture to look at her now shaking hand, taking a few deep breaths to still it. Keep it together! There isn’t even anyone else in this cell… But she’s still without magic… helpless… “By instead isolating me, the barrier becomes much stronger, and I’d have an even harder time to escape… but I’ll be much more comfortable with the ability to magically become smaller and create creature comforts.” It would also be the only way someone like Trigon would fit inside. 

“She’s trying to trick you.” Dr. Nazi insisted, accurately. “Do not give in to her lies.”

“I know all the laws on treatments of Prisoners of War.” Tanya countered. It was true, she did. Including how those laws absolutely do not apply right now. “Look, if it’ll make you feel better, how about we get my own boss involved? Just carry the cage over to Batman’s cell, and he can vouch for me.” This particular model of magical containment cage was so small specifically because it was meant to be portable. Something you brought to the battlefield on a wagon or something so you could capture whatever ghost or demon or whatever was troubling you. Tanya had one built into the Batmobile as well, although it was even smaller than this. It was definitely not something she’d want used unless the alternative was killing or severely injuring the target instead. 

X-man didn’t say anything, but he accessed the console of her “cell”, and the platform her cage was under lifted, and after a moment apparently grew wheels and started to roll. He wheeled her cage to the hallway with the other cells. 

Hopefully Bruce can think of something…